Project Brays determined to lower the risk of flooding in area
By Carissa D. Lamkahouan
Project Brays, which has been ongoing for 15 years and is slated to wrap up in 2021, aims to reduce flooding by widening the channel and improving or building 32 bridges along 21 miles of the waterway. This recent construction represented a $4 million chunk of the entire Project Brays, estimated at approximately $480 million.
The district is splitting the overall cost 50-50 with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, federal partner in the project. For this small section the district picked up two-thirds of the tab, about $2.7 million which included the bridge work, and the Corps contributed the rest to pay for the widening of the bayou.
Gary Zika, Harris County Flood Control District program manager for Project Brays, said that once the bayou was widened the Wheeler Street Bridge had to be demolished to make way for the longer bridge that was constructed as part of the project.